Lasting Word (Lutherans Affirming Scriptural Truth as God’s Word) will host the Rev. Mark Chavez at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, 205 St. Paul’s Church Road, today at 7 p.m.
Chavez is director of Lutheran CORE and vice president of the WordAlone Network. His discussion, “Right in Whose Eyes? ó Ours or God’s?” will include possible outcomes of August’s Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to be held in Minneapolis Aug. 17-23.
The assembly will vote on a recently released proposed Social Statement on Human Sexuality and recommendations from the ELCA sexuality task force regarding ministry policies which, if adopted by the assembly, could change current ministry standards to allow ministers and other rostered leaders who are in homosexual relationships.
The ELCA is the largest Lutheran body in the United States, with 4.7 million members in 10,400 congregations. They include the North Carolina Synod headquartered in Salisbury with 86,000 members in 242 congregations.
Lutheran CORE (Coalition for Reform) is a national coalition of individuals, congregations and reform movements in the ELCA.
Lasting Word is a coalition of individuals and congregations of the N.C. Synod of the ELCA who, since 2002, have worked together to stay informed of issues facing ELCA members.
Chavez is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Queen’s College, Oxford University and Luther Northwestern Theological Seminary, St. Paul, Minn.
He began serving with the WordAlone Network in August 2000.